The very terms "understeer" and "oversteer" carry cybernetic implication, for these are terms of intent. Understeer means the car is not steering as much as wanted, and oversteer means it is steering too much.

The above description is within current technology. What if we get really fantastic? How about doing away with the steering wheel altogether? CyberCar, version II, knows where the driver wants to go by watching his eyes, and it knows whether to accelerate or brake by watching brain waves. With Virtual Reality and teleoperation, the driver does not even have to be inside the car. The driver, wearing binocular video displays that control in-car cameras (or even synthetic computer graphics) via head position, sits in a virtual cockpit in the pits.

Now we must ask how much cybernetics is desirable? Autocrossing is, largely, a pure driver skill contest. Wheel-to-wheel racing adds race craft--drafting, passing, deception, etc. --to car control skills. Does it not seem that cybernetics eliminates driver skill as a factor by automating it? Is it not just another way for the "haves" to beat the "have-nots" by out-spending them? Drivers who do not have ABS have already complained that it gives their competition an unfair advantage. On the other hand, drivers who do have it have complained that it reduces their feel of control and their options while braking. I think they doth protest too much.

In the highest forms of racing, where money is literally no object, cybernetics is already playing a critical role. The clutch-less seven speed transmissions of the Williams/Renault team dominated the latter half of the 1991 Formula 1 season. But for some unattributable bad luck, they would have won the driver's championship and the constructor's cup. Carrol Smith, noted racing engineer, has been predicting for years that ABS will show up in Formula 1 as soon as systems can be made small and light enough [2]. It seems inevitable to me that cybernetic systems will give the unfair advantage to those teams most awash in money. However, autocrossers, club racers, and other grass roots competitors will be spared the expense, and the experience of being relieved of the enjoyment of car control, for at least another decade or two.

Acknowledgements
Thanks to Phil Ethier for giving me a few tips on car control that I might be able to teach to CyberCar and to Ginger Clark for bringing slip angle sensors to my attention.

Notes

* And the word play on 'dream' was too much to resist.

** Everywhere, 'he' means 'he or she,' 'his' means 'his or her,' etc.

*** Also known as grip angle; see Part 10 of this series.

References

[1] Patrick Borthelow, "Sensing Tire Slip Angles At the Racetrack," Sensors, September 1991.

[2] Carrol Smith, Engineer to Win, Prepare to Win, Build to Win, from Classic Motorbooks, P.O. Box 1/RT021, Osceola, WI, 54020.